Babis Says No to Migrant Quotas

Brussels, Dec 14 (CTK) – The Czech Republic should not convince the European Commission to withdraw its legal complaint against it over its rejection of quotas for the redistribution of migrants by accepting some refugees, Prime Minister Andrej Babis told journalists during the EU summit today.

This is a matter of principle, Babis said.

The individual countries must not be forced to accept any people to work or just live in them, he added.

Babis wants to discuss the issue with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.

On December 7, the European Commission (EC) decided to file a legal complaint over the refusal of migrant quotas against the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

The court can impose a one-off high fine on the countries in question.

Slovakia has avoided the action, although it only received 16 people.

Babis said the situation was paradoxical. “If you remember it, Slovakia was the first to have protested against the quotas,” he added.

There is the question of whether any migrants really came to Slovakia, Babis said.

Babis said it was a matter of principle and he would not accept even a low number of migrants just to make the EC drop its lawsuit against the Czech Republic.

“We cannot resolve the fine by accepting 20 refugees,” Babis said.

Babis had a brief meeting with President of the European Council Donald Tusk briefly before the opening of the summit.

Babis praised him for his criticism of the mechanism of migrant quotas.

Babis said they had also discussed the active involvement of the Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland) in European affairs.